Mumbai, Nov 23 (Reporter) The counting of votes for the 288 assembly constituencies in Maharashtra, along with the lone Nanded Lok Sabha constituency by-election, began on Saturday amidst tight security. The counting started at 8 am in the morning at 288 counting centres set up for each assembly constituency and one for Nanded LS constituency. Adequate police force has been deployed at all counting places to maintain law and order. The 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra went to polls in a single-phase election on November 20. In this election, over 9.70 crore voters exercised their franchise at 1,00,436 polling stations across the 288 assembly constituencies in one of the largest states in the country. This year, the highest 66 percent voter turnout was recorded since 1995 assembly election when 71 percent polling was recorded. Counting of postal ballots will take first and after that counting of electronic voting machines (EVMs) will start, an official said. Trends are likely to start coming after 10 am and all the results will be out by 4 pm. Information and trends would be uploaded on the website of Election Commission, official said adding that a control room had been set up at Mantralaya for the media. Several digital hoardings will be set up atn different locations in Mantralaya. At the district -level, information will be provided after every round of counting, the official said. Altogether 4,136 candidates, including 377 women, are in fray in these constituencies. In the ruling Mahayuti alliance, the BJP contested 149 seats, Shiv Sena (Shinde) 81 and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP fielded 59 candidates. For the opposition MVA, the Congress has fielded 101 candidates, Shiv Sena (UBT) 95 and NCP (SP) 86 candidates. Prominent candidates who contested Maharashtra Assembly election as per their party are Shiv Sena Shinde group: Chief Minister Eknath Shinde (Kopri Pachpakhadi), Abdul Sattar(Sillod), Uday Samant (Ratnagiri) and Deepak Kesarkar (Sawantwadi). BJP: Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis(Nagpur South West), Rahul Narvekar (Colaba), Nitesh Rane (Kankavli), Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil (Shirdi), Girish Mahajan (Jamner), Sudhir Munganttiwar (Ballarpur). NCP-Ajit Pawar group: Deputy CM Ajit Pawar (Baramati), Dhananjay Munde (Parli), Nawab Malik (Mankhurd Shivajinagar), Dilip Walse-Patil (Ambegaon), Hassan Mushrif (Kagal). Congress: Prithviraj Chavan (Karad South), Nana Patole (Sakoli), Vijay Wadettiwar (Bramhapuri) and Balasaheb Thorat (Sangamner). UBT Sena: Aaditya Thackeray (Worli), Ajay Chaudhari (Shivadi), Anil Gote (Dhule city) and Bhaskar Jadhav (Guhagar). NCP-SP: Rohit Pawar (Karjat Jamkhed), Yugendra Pawar (Baramati), Harshavardan Patil (Indapur), Jayant Patil (Islampur) and Jitendra Awhad (Mumbra-Kalwa). MNS: Amit Thackeray (Mahim), Bala Nangaonkar (Shivadi). Maha Parivatan Agadhi: Bacchu Kadu (Achalpur). Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi: Transgender Shamibha Patil (Raver). AIMIM: Imtiaz Jaleel (Aurangabad East). SP: Abu Azami (Mankhurd Shivajinagar)...////...